Guy Shrubsole

This book is about how we use our land – but it’s also about exposing the lies we tell about our countryside.  

A blistering sequel to his first book, “Who Owns England?”, writer and environmental campaigner Guy Shrubsole’s new book, “The Lie of the Land”, is a riveting, trenchant (and brilliantly titled) exposé of the ways in which many large private landowners – considered by some the “rightful stewards of the countryside” – are responsible for the destruction and degradation of many of our most important landscapes.  

But it is also a book about the people trying to pick up the pieces: small-scale farmers, community groups and ordinary members of the public who try to be custodians of the countryside. Stroud’s very own Weven gets a mention! 

We welcome Guy to Stroud Book Festival to discuss “The Lie of the Land”, and the profound notion that any of us can care for the countryside, regardless of whether we own it.